Pierce is 35 years old. Check the stats. 35 year olds MJ, Larry Bird, Scottie Pippen, Julius Erving, Jerry West, Alex English, and a host of other great wing players all played big minutes and very well at 35 years old.

Pierce is in some of the best shape of his life and still playing an all around game that is far better than Jeff Green's game. You don't sit a better player simply because he might be older than another or because you have a man crush on the bench player.

That's just bad basketball coaching.

TP. Bad coaching it would be indeed. Pierce hasn't been shooting well all season and has been a turnover machine, but he still gets respect. Philly was double-teaming him when he caught the ball in the post, leading to wide-open shots for teammates, namely KG and Bass.

Doc will give everyone the day off tomorrow and will probably give the 30 year old and over club a second day off on Monday. We'll be well rested for the Mavs.

Logged

Broussard: "Did you call bank?"Pierce: "I called game."

- Paul Pierce on his game-winning buzzer beater, game 3 EC Semi-finals against the Atlanta Hawks

Well, not actuallyBENCH..PP, just start jeff...i think every guy on our team should get a chance to start during the season....it brings them into the fold faster...! TEAM, starts at the top, the players usually always want to be a part....so bring them in..! If you bruise an ego, so what...growing up is hard to do...at first.....esp if you have a too big ego...!

Well, not actuallyBENCH..PP, just start jeff...i think every guy on our team should get a chance to start during the season....it brings them into the fold faster...! TEAM, starts at the top, the players usually always want to be a part....so bring them in..! If you bruise an ego, so what...growing up is hard to do...at first.....esp if you have a too big ego...!

When pierce and green play together at the guard spots, it makes it real difficult for the other team to get open shots, and on offense the floor is spaced with both pierce and green ready to take smaller opposition to the hoop.

Well, not actuallyBENCH..PP, just start jeff...i think every guy on our team should get a chance to start during the season....it brings them into the fold faster...! TEAM, starts at the top, the players usually always want to be a part....so bring them in..! If you bruise an ego, so what...growing up is hard to do...at first.....esp if you have a too big ego...!

Agreed, TP

This isn't high school ball or some summer rec league. This is professional basketball. You coach like a professional by treating the players on your team like professionals.

And you do that by defining a role for each player and making that player fill that role to the best of their capabilities. You earn the players respect by giving it respect to them. You do that by

- Not disrespecting the stars of your team- Not jerking starters in and out of lineups for no reason- Making players that haven't proven anything prove they deserve playing time before giving them playing time.-Being as consistent in your decision making and management of your players as you possibly can.

Benching Pierce to give Green a start is violating every tenet of that philosophy. Green's JOB is to come off the bench, rebound, play great defense and score this year. Its not to start. He's has only been doing that job well for 3-4 games at best all year. He's only now starting to show any consistent scoring punch.

Pierce is this team's captain and leader. He's earned the respect and right to play in the starters role as long as he wants.

That's all good basketball coaching. Anything else is just plain bad basketball coaching and quite honestly, not in the best interest of this team as a whole.

So enough with the ridiculous calls for starting Green. He's a bench player. Let him start getting used to that and excelling at that role. That's what this team needs. That and for Bradley and his exceptional defense to return.

Well, not actuallyBENCH..PP, just start jeff...i think every guy on our team should get a chance to start during the season....it brings them into the fold faster...! TEAM, starts at the top, the players usually always want to be a part....so bring them in..! If you bruise an ego, so what...growing up is hard to do...at first.....esp if you have a too big ego...!

Agreed, TP

This isn't high school ball or some summer rec league. This is professional basketball. You coach like a professional by treating the players on your team like professionals.

And you do that by defining a role for each player and making that player fill that role to the best of their capabilities. You earn the players respect by giving it respect to them. You do that by

- Not disrespecting the stars of your team- Not jerking starters in and out of lineups for no reason- Making players that haven't proven anything prove they deserve playing time before giving them playing time.-Being as consistent in your decision making and management of your players as you possibly can.

Benching Pierce to give Green a start is violating every tenet of that philosophy. Green's JOB is to come off the bench, rebound, play great defense and score this year. Its not to start. He's has only been doing that job well for 3-4 games at best all year. He's only now starting to show any consistent scoring punch.

Pierce is this team's captain and leader. He's earned the respect and right to play in the starters role as long as he wants.

That's all good basketball coaching. Anything else is just plain bad basketball coaching and quite honestly, not in the best interest of this team as a whole.

So enough with the ridiculous calls for starting Green. He's a bench player. Let him start getting used to that and excelling at that role. That's what this team needs. That and for Bradley and his exceptional defense to return.

Obviously you didn't comprehend my post very well. Secondly no, he does not get to keep that spot as long as he wants. He gets to keep it as long as hes producing. Heck, he was just on the trading block last year.

Boy, do I think this is a silly idea. I don't know where the notion that Paul Pierce is playing badly so far this year is even coming from. Yes, his field goal percentage is down, but he's still scoring at a high rate and at an efficient rate when you factor in that he's getting to the line better than he has in years right now. He's also making a good number of threes. His assists are close to career averages as is his A/TO. He's rebounding slightly less than he should be, but overall dude's playing like a borderline all star so far.

I think he can start hitting shots at a higher level, get a bit better rhythm going, and he could easily be putting up top 25 type numbers by season's end. The captain isn't close to being toast.

The whole Paul Pierce is playing like crap line is getting overblown. Now, it's like folks are just believing it's true because everyone else is saying it's true. Let me fill you guys in on something; it's not true.

Boy, do I think this is a silly idea. I don't know where the notion that Paul Pierce is playing badly so far this year is even coming from. Yes, his field goal percentage is down, but he's still scoring at a high rate and at an efficient rate when you factor in that he's getting to the line better than he has in years right now. He's also making a good number of threes. His assists are close to career averages as is his A/TO. He's rebounding slightly less than he should be, but overall dude's playing like a borderline all star so far.

I think he can start hitting shots at a higher level, get a bit better rhythm going, and he could easily be putting up top 25 type numbers by season's end. The captain isn't close to being toast.

The whole Paul Pierce is playing like crap line is getting overblown. Now, it's like folks are just believing it's true because everyone else is saying it's true. Let me fill you guys in on something; it's not true.

Apart from his overall FG%, there is no dramatic drop-off in his production. He won't be shooting worse, so, it's not a blindfolded optimism to think he will be hitting at a better rate after a while.

After he hit a couple of wide open corner threes last season, there were people on this forum comparing Bradley's shooting ability to that of Ray Allen's, so, it's actually not a surprise to see them having a shot at Pierce because he's shooting the ball worse than Jeff Green.

Pierce has clearly gotten worse over the last 2 years or so. Without even looking at the numbers i can see that myself by just watching the games. Yes he has those games where he looks like himself but overall hes been inconsistent with his shot and a step slower on defense.

He has been pretty consistent with getting points one way or another. I don't want pierce shooting 25 shots a game tho. I like what he did the other day. I think he only shot 11 shots.

For people who can't comprehend this post was mainly to give pierce a day off after playing 45mins the previous night. The bonus was just to be able to see green in the starting linuep. This post wasn't calling for pierce to be benched for good.

I know alot of you saw the title of the thread and before even reading you made up your mind you were gonna defend paul pierce. Pierce needs to keep his shots down and stop jacking up 3's.

Pierce has clearly gotten worse over the last 2 years or so. Without even looking at the numbers i can see that myself by just watching the games. Yes he has those games where he looks like himself but overall hes been inconsistent with his shot and a step slower on defense.

He has been pretty consistent with getting points one way or another. I don't want pierce shooting 25 shots a game tho. I like what he did the other day. I think he only shot 11 shots.

For people who can't comprehend this post was mainly to give pierce a day off after playing 45mins the previous night. The bonus was just to be able to see green in the starting linuep. This post wasn't calling for pierce to be benched for good.

I know alot of you saw the title of the thread and before even reading you made up your mind you were gonna defend paul pierce. Pierce needs to keep his shots down and stop jacking up 3's.

When you start with the thread title of "bench Pierce" instead of "give Pierce the day off", your context will be vastly overlooked.

When pierce and green play together at the guard spots, it makes it real difficult for the other team to get open shots, and on offense the floor is spaced with both pierce and green ready to take smaller opposition to the hoop.

Rondo1 pierce2 green3

Yes, this is what I would do if the objective is to start Green. Terry actually likes the 6th man role. Pierce is still the man or needs to be if we are to contend.

Pierce has clearly gotten worse over the last 2 years or so. Without even looking at the numbers i can see that myself by just watching the games. Yes he has those games where he looks like himself but overall hes been inconsistent with his shot and a step slower on defense.

He has been pretty consistent with getting points one way or another. I don't want pierce shooting 25 shots a game tho. I like what he did the other day. I think he only shot 11 shots.

For people who can't comprehend this post was mainly to give pierce a day off after playing 45mins the previous night. The bonus was just to be able to see green in the starting linuep. This post wasn't calling for pierce to be benched for good.

I know alot of you saw the title of the thread and before even reading you made up your mind you were gonna defend paul pierce. Pierce needs to keep his shots down and stop jacking up 3's.

When you start with the thread title of "bench Pierce" instead of "give Pierce the day off", your context will be vastly overlooked.

You guys aren't 12. If you just read what i wrote you would very quickly learn i didn't mean bench pierce beyond yesterdays game. You can take it however you want tho. The game is done with, moving on.

Pierce has clearly gotten worse over the last 2 years or so. Without even looking at the numbers i can see that myself by just watching the games. Yes he has those games where he looks like himself but overall hes been inconsistent with his shot and a step slower on defense.

He has been pretty consistent with getting points one way or another. I don't want pierce shooting 25 shots a game tho. I like what he did the other day. I think he only shot 11 shots.

For people who can't comprehend this post was mainly to give pierce a day off after playing 45mins the previous night. The bonus was just to be able to see green in the starting linuep. This post wasn't calling for pierce to be benched for good.

I know alot of you saw the title of the thread and before even reading you made up your mind you were gonna defend paul pierce. Pierce needs to keep his shots down and stop jacking up 3's.

It's not an issue of comprehension, it's an issue of disagreement. I would love to see Paul Pierce kept down to around thirty minutes a game, but he is, and should absolutely be, our starting small forward. We needed the win last night, and it would have been crazy to rest one of our best players just because he played big minutes the night before.

I know Greg Popovich does it, but even though he is a great coach, that guy is slightly crazy.